Is anyone else sick to death of politicians at the Fringe?

How do you make a depressing rainy Scottish summer in the middle of a financial crisis even worse?

Answer: turn the Edinburgh Fringe into an endless party political broadcast filled with has-beens, wannabes and never-should-have-happeneds.

The Edinburgh Fringe was once a wee haven of fun for those trying to escape the endless rains of a Scottish August. Now it’s a narcissism-parade, a charabanc of politicians shouting their gobs off about their petty obsessions – which they’ve already bored us to death with throughout the rest of the year – or slagging each other off, and ramping up the culture wars they create to cause misery in all our lives.

It used to be you couldn’t avoid some private school kid on their gap year dressed as a sad clown handing out flyers along the Royal Mile for a Brechtian take on the lives of Kazakh nomads. Today, you’re armpit-deep in Sturgeons, Salmonds, Mordaunts, and Cherrys. 

Is this sadism deliberate? Don’t they understand most of us – apart from the dejected weirdos who’d pay to see them flap their gums – could do with a break from them, just for a wee while?

Nothing they say on stage is of interest, anyway. Look, here comes Tory MP Penny Mordaunt. What fascinating new talking points will she grace us with? Oh, she’s slagging off the SNP. Heavens, how utterly original! What a fresh and innovative take.

Is this Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond we see before us? What could they be going to talk about? Oh, themselves, their feud. Wow. Pull me up a chair – this is going to be the story of the century.

Look, Joanna Cherry approacheth. Amazing, she’s talking about gender. Has that ever happened before in the history of the world? What could she have to say?

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And yonder, Humza Yousaf comes hither to the stage. The leader of the Scottish nation obviously needs far more opportunities than currently exist to get his thoughts across to the suffering masses crying out for yet more political wisdom.

Salmond has basically occupied Edinburgh. His show – The Ayes Have It (total cringe) – features Tory chuckle brothers David Davis and John Bercow, former Labour First Minister Henry McLeish and Joanna Cherry (again).

Dear god, haven’t these people collectively and individually had enough air-time over the decades? 

What makes this all the more infuriating is the soft-ball nature of the ‘debate’. Nobody is grilled, no feet come near any fires. It’s a cosy kiss-in for those safely ensconced in their gilded political-media bubbles.

This degrades the Edinburgh festival. The Fringe should be about art. Politics is not art. Art is a way for artists and audience to try to come to a collective understanding of this confusing world in which we all live together.

Politics is a way of one person – or group of people – forcing their opinion on others. Politics is a way of getting power. Art is a way of challenging power.

The only positive is that these political limelight hogs are helping some venues and their staff earn a little money in the hard-pressed entertainment sector.

But it’s pretty likely if you pushed this lot off stage and put some interesting comedians, singers, actors and writers on in their place that finances would level out.

The sight of politicians jockeying for attention in Edinburgh during the summer is the new definition of ‘thirsty’ in 2023.

Perhaps, we should do a little role reversal. Why don’t we let the entertainers take over Holyrood for the summer while the politicians spoil show-business? I mean it would just be one bunch of comedians replacing another, anyway.

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